Decoding Ben & Jerry's Fairness Formula: Three Keys to Lasting Impact

I recently had the pleasure of touring the Ben & Jerry’s manufacturing facility while on a trip to Vermont to record an audio version of my new book, Seeking Fairness at Work.

And yes, you do get a free ice cream sample at the end of the tour!

But what impressed me even more was some of the fundamental honesty and fairness I witnessed.

For example, their quality control procedures require a sample be taken from the production line every hour to insure product consistency. It means their taste testers end up eating a pint of ice cream every day they’re on the job.

Getting paid to eat ice cream most of the day may sound like a dream job to some, but the calories do add up. It would be unfair to expect the taste testers to absorb the health risk associated with their job requirements, so to offset and compensate for it the company pays for their gym membership. That’s pretty cool.

Another interesting thing I discovered is how Ben & Jerry’s uses humor and humility to connect with our shared humanity and a “we’re in this together” vibe. Besides the fun names they give their amazing flavors and the moo-vie theater where a short film introduces the founders, Ben and Jerry, as the two slowest kids in their high school gym class who were shocked by the success of their ice cream mix-ins when they started their business; they also celebrate their failures with humor and humility.

Situated on the property near the parking lot is a “Flavor Graveyard” with a few dozen headstones and clever descriptions of flavors that apparently had more calories than sales. There was the Makin’ Whoopie Pie (chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and devil’s food cookies) where the headstone said, “Though we sure loved Makin’ Whoopie Pie, And you loved eating the stuff, After a while we all had to admit it just wasn’t Whoopie enough (2002-2003).”

And also the Aloha Macadamia (rich milk chocolate cashew Brazil-nut butter ice cream with macadamia nuts covered in white and dark chocolate fudge and a milk chocolately swirl) where the headstone said, “We won’t blame the macadamia, But we were kinda in denial, The marketplace has spoken, Mac got aloha’d off the island (2001-2002).”

While many organizations bury their mistakes in a “we’re too smart to fail” kind of way, in the Flavor Graveyard Ben & Jerry’s owns up to them. They’re being honest and that’s fair. It made me love them all the more.

Oh, and then there’s how they use product size to protect the customer experience. ?

One person on the tour asked why they couldn’t find half gallon containers of Ben & Jerry’s at the store. The answer was simple: they don’t produce them. They only make pints (400,000 a day at this facility) and single serve dixie cups for retail consumers. (Yes, I know, for some of us a pint is a single serving on a particularly bad day.)

The company discovered the average rate of retail consumer consumption leaves half gallon containers sitting the freezer long enough to form ice crystals and change the product’s texture. As a result, Ben & Jerry’s is being fair to our taste buds. Pints insure our last bite tastes as good as the first.

It all goes to show that honesty and fairness isn’t about charity. It’s smart business!

#fairness #honesty #Ben&Jerry's #customersatisfaction #employeebenefits #humility #humor